Some fall fun

What we've been up to

Here is Emma on her very first day of preschool. She loves her teacher and going to school two times per week. She has already gained confidence and has learned so many new things. She sings songs about the days of the week, the months of the year and the seasons.

 Greyson is doing well. He has been hard at work on getting more teeth. As you can see. He's a happy boy! He is so close to walking. I am weaning him to soy milk which he drinks right up! However, he still wants to get up once per night for me to feed him. Here's to better luck getting him to sleep all night.

 Here he is in his Sunday "little man" outfit. We went to my neice - Cecilia's baby dedication today. Greyson didn't make it through the service so he and I hung out in the car for awhile. We turned the back seat into a play area and he and I had fun although you can see his eyes getting very heavy.

Jon and I are doing well too. I have been working a couple days per week the last couple weeks. We enjoy going to garage sales every weekend. We are done with our big house projects but we did find the perfect mirror for our bathroom at a garage sale for five dollars! All I need to do is... you guessed it... spray paint it. I'll post a picture when it's all done.
We are still so thankful for this house and are looking forward to watch the leaves on the two big Maple trees change color. And maybe even jumping in some piles of leaves.

How fun, Grey turned one!

Greyson was very happy on his birthday... Until I tried to put the birthday hat on him. He immediately started crying. Fortunately, as soon as I took the picture and took the hat off, daddy held him and he was happy again.

 Here's the cake- and the birthday theme. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".

 He hadn't had cake before but it seems he likes it.

Right after this picture he got a birthday bath.

 He enjoyed opening his presents and like all babies thought that the wrapping paper and tissue paper were more fun than the actual gifts.

We are so thankful and blessed to have the joy of raising our little boy. We daily pray for wisdom as parents and that he has a heart for Jesus all of his life.

Happy birthday Greyson Joshua!

Come and listen

Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he did for me.

Psalm 66:16

God saved my soul.

God saved my marriage.

God saved my life.

Literally...

When I was a child I accepted Jesus and became a Christian. I was an immature Christian because I was immature, a child. But He has been patient with me and allowed me to grow. I believe that Jesus is God's perfect Son. That He died on the cross for my sins and was laid in a cold dark tomb. He was dead. 

He wasn't breathing. At all. For three days. No life was in His body. And then God breathed life back into Him. Praise be to God, He breathed life back into the lifeless body and Jesus's cold, dead body was alive! He rescued me and my soul.

God has never given up on me. When I couldn't set foot in a church, or even in a church parking lot, He met me at home or in the woods or huddled on the bathroom floor. When I have been mean and spiteful, He has been kind and patient. When I have been unforgiving and angry He has been compassionate and unchanging. When I have been hungry for more of Him He has graciously and generously, in His goodness, poured into me until I am overflowing.  

When life appeared "perfect" from the outside my marriage was bleeding out. It was painful and hurtful for both of us. It was raw and wounding. It was lonely and awful. It felt hopeless but we never gave up hope. We clung to God as we yelled, as we cried and finally, as we both forgave. And only by the grace and goodness of God our marriage was healed ... we have the scars to prove it.

In His mercy, Emma was fine. She was a perfectly healthy baby, I was not a healthy momma. I was going downhill fast. I was sleeping, then I wasn't breathing, a nurse came in, then the doctors. I was given oxygen and could breath and just wanted to close my eyes so badly, just wanted to sleep, to rest. Then I was in ICU, then the ambulance, transported to a different hospital. I just wanted to be with my baby. The doctors met with each other, they met with my family. Jon came to my bedside and held my hand and told me I needed open-heart surgery. However, my body was doing downhill so fast they couldn't do the surgery. We were praying. Everyone we knew and then some, were praying.

All the doctors and nurses left my room. Jon left momentarily and I prayed a prayer I wasn't sure I was allowed to pray. Jesus had prayed it for such a bigger reason. But it was in my heart, so I prayed it.

"Please take this cup from me".

And then I slept.

And I woke up as I was pumped full of medicine and the doctors answers to my familys' questions were "pray harder". My mom kept vigil at my bedside as Jon went back and forth between hospitals to be with me and to go be with Emma.

God heard me.

He took the cup. Just like when He took it when He saved my soul, He took the cup of death from me and saved me. Saved my life.

My doctor came into my room and smiled.

He said "I can't explain it."

We could.

My chart says unknown heart failure, unknown reversal and at the bottom shows that the tests reveal a now perfectly healthy heart.

Jesus saved my spiritual heart.

He saved my physical heart.

So please, come and listen, let me tell you what He has done for me. Praise God! What He has done for me! 

Some more house stuff

We weren't fans of the dirty pink walls. We still aren't fans of the dark teal carpet but we are happy with the other changes we made...

Before

After!

 I am excited about my abstract paintings above the bed. It was my first attempt to do abstract oil paintings. The bright white walls look clean and are the only color that doesn't clash with the carpet. And I really like the lamps and nightstands. We will hopefully save for a new black bedframe/headboard.

The bathroom was also that lovely shade of dingy pink.

 We also weren't fans of the brass fixtures. So like everything else in our house...

I spray painted it!

 We painted the bathroom walls charcoal gray which turned out beautiful!

In other news, we went to Great Wolf Lodge for an overnight vacation. That's another post, but we had a great time. Jon had a whole week off work which, while we were only gone one night, we enjoyed having him home with us the rest of the week.

Grey is all over the house in his adorable crab, bear, funny crawl. He is very happy and even sleeps through the night more now.

Emma is ready to start preschool in a couple weeks. She keeps insisting that she will be eating lunch there and I can't convince her otherwise. We have been working with her in the swimming pool. She has a fear of the water but is making progress.

I'm hoping to join a Bible study this fall. Most took the summer off so I have one I am ready to join as soon as it starts.

That's everything about us... including our bathroom sink!

A basket full of fun

Emma was in the basket which meant that as soon as Grey saw her in there, he scrambled to climb in too. With little help he was in and they were happy to have me pull them around the house for a little bit.

If only I could have gotten Jarrah in too... now that would have been a picture!

Odds, Ends and some about Jon

Awhile back I promised to post pictures of the treasures we found on our date. Here are some of those things.

Emma is taking swimming lessons for two weeks. She really loves it and it's a parent/child class and Jon has been taking her. She has yet to put her whole head underwater on her own yet (she did go under when she went down the slide) but she'll get there.

However she and Grey are sick. The last couple nights have been rough. Last night, I was tired, I was also not feeling well and Grey had been up for about 3 hours, Emma had been up as well. Jon had gone to bed late afternoon and I finally hit my end. I went to bed, flopped down and said "I'm at the end of my rope. Tag, you're it."
Bless his heart, Jon got up, took care of both kids, letting them sleep in his arms and on the couch, he even fed Grey baby food in the middle of the night so he didn't have to wake me to nurse the baby. I was so thankful! And this morning, Jon met me with a smile on his face after having taken care of two sick kids all night.
I'm so blessed to have him. He takes such good care of all of us. 

I even got breakfast in bed a few weeks ago, for no reason. "Just because" he said. What a gem!

He is on vacation this week after completing a full year of work! We got to go on a date and see Spider Man which we enjoyed. We reminisced about when we saw the first Spider Man. We hadn't been married long and had driven to Columbus, met friends there and hung out until the 12:30am showing. This week we saw a matinee, just the two of us. Boy times have changed- and we love it!

In other news:
Emma and I also were treated to a birthday lunch with our friend "lowlee", which we really enjoyed. What fun to visit with her and have lunch out.

Grey is crawling everywhere. He has mastered getting his knees under him and doesnt' army crawl anymore. He's so very happy now that he can go where he wants (often, NOT where I want him to go though). Freedom agrees with him.

We have 4 butterflies in our kitchen. Emma got a "butterfly kit" for her birthday which included 4 caterpillers. We watched them create crysalises and yesterday and today they all emerged as beautiful "Painted Lady" butterflies. We are feeding them sliced grapes and flowers dipped in sugar water. We will release them tomorrow. It's really incredible to watch that transformation. Emma has really enjoyed it but I have been even more enamored I think.

Jon and I are going to try our hand at some paintings. We have been looking at all kinds of things and have some inspiration. I'll post pictures of our painting when they are done. Also, I think we are going to hang my painting of the poppies I painted this winter once we get it framed. We might try to make the frame ourselves too. We'll see.

It's been and continues to be a fun and relaxing summer.

Happy 4th birthday Emma

Emma has been so very excited to turn four years old. She surprised me by choosing a butterfly cake instead of Hello Kitty. She even helped me make it. One of the things she has been most looking forward to is getting to move up to the next Sunday School class. During their storytime they combine classes and each class sits on a separate colored rug. The three year olds sit on purple and when you turn four, you get to sit on the ever exciting yellow rug! She was so thrilled to go to church Sunday to get to sit on that special rug.

Here is her great cake we made together.  

 She is so big! Her smile makes me so happy.

 Even though the cake wasn't Hello Kitty, many of the other birthday gifts and such were. She is quite the fan right now. She was so thrilled with the Hello Kitty suitcase from Nana and Papaw that she packed it and took it to church with us Sunday. On the way I asked what she had packed and she listed quite the long list of stuffed animals. The suitcase stayed in the car while we were in church but she just liked packing it, wheeling it to the car and having it with her. I also asked if she was excited to get to use it, meaning, for clothes and overnight items when she stays at Nana's next time. She replied "buy mommy, I AM using it!'. I guess, even just taking it to church counts as using it.

The backpack is also Hello Kitty. Which is for preschool. I can't believe she'll be going this fall. It's only two mornings per week, but I sure will miss her. She, on the other hand, couldn't be more excited. I watched her at library storytime today. She sat on the rug, listened to the books being read, did the motions for the songs and poems and even chimed in with answers. I was so proud of her. I see her growing in her abilities to join in groups and follow directions.

She is such a doll.

She is my sunshine.

She is four!

Applause please...

I have been working on the kitchen for a couple months now. I have done the painting in stages and finally can put down the paint brush. It is finished! We still have to hang some art on the large wall but it feels incredible to have all the painting done.

Here is the before picture.

 Here is the middle of the project picture.

 Here is the finished product! Feel free to applaud. Even to give me a standing ovation. No? Oh, well I love it and can't wait to hang up the art... and my paint brush.

Ode to my Honda

Dear Little Silver Civic,
Jon found you on Autotrader 11 years and 150,000 miles ago. You have kept us safe and have taken us lots of great places. You have brought our children home from the hospital and have taken us to so many fun events.
It's not for lack of love that we traded you in. It's for lack of four wheel drive and some space. It's not your fault. We couldn't have asked more of you. You never broke down, never left me stranded on the side of the road. You simply are going on to a new owner.
Someone new needs you.
Thank you for being my favorite car.
Thank you for 11 great years of driving.

Bye Little Silver Civic.

Live long and prosper.

Like old times

Jon and I dropped the kids off at Papaw and Nana's on Saturday and went to Columbus. We had such a great time. It reminded us both of when we were dating in college. We even enjoyed the time together while stuck in traffic. We listened to Jon's itunes and even the regular radio. (I am usually listening to toddler favorites and bible schools songs in my car, so all the songs on the radio sounded new to me! ha!) We weren't in a huge hurry and had time to just think about being together. We had time to talk serious and light hearted.

Jon said he was hungry for philly steak for lunch but we doubted we could find one outside of a mall food court. So we headed on to the stores and what did we see across the street? A phillie steak restaurant! yay!
The stores we actually went to Columbus for didn't prove to be fruitful but Jon suggested we stop at a store we passed along the way and we hit the jackpot there! We found lampshades to match our new bedding and a painting that I love for the dining room. It makes me happy every time I see it. I like that Jon and I share a love of art. We like abstract art that "speaks to us". The picture in the dining room doesn't speak to Jon and  to be truthful, it doesn't actually speak to me. But it makes me happy. I smile every time I see it. It's kind of like hearing an oldies song. My heart lifts and the corners of my mouth do too. And the day was so enjoyable that now I attach that memory to the painting too.
On the way home Jon had another idea to stop at an antique shop. Those of you who know me, know my theory about antiques. Why pay a lot of money for junk that either doesn't work now, never did or you could buy cheaper new. However, since we were having such a great time I figured I'd just enjoy being with Jon and maybe find some fun trinket for the kids.
Right when we walked in the door there was a painted oak cabinet. It was old and had the honest worn look to it. It is painted robin egg blue and we both loved it. The best part is that the price was a steal! We snagged it as well as a large ten candle -candle holder for the fireplace. Our chimney needs work and as our sweet German landlady said "expensive to fix, no use". So we "no use" but can enjoy having lit candles in it if we like. So we found the candle holder and cabinet and crossed the street only to have to shuffle things around in Jon's little car. The lamp shades, painting, cabinet and candle holder barely fit in the car. Once we got to my mom's we had to leave the cabinet there in order to be able to take our children home with us! Oh the joys of his car just keep giving.
I kid.... sort of.

We will get the cabinet to our house soon and I'll get pictures of our treasures.

The day together was so refreshing. The sun, the radio, the drive, the hand holding. It felt like old times and made my heart full.

Fun week

We got to spend time with Jon's grandmother for her birthday. She is such a sweet lady. She painted with Emma and even got down on the floor and played dominos with her. She played "store" and read books. You'd never know she's 94 years old.

 The kids and I went to the Cleveland Science Center this week and enjoyed the time with my sister, her kids and my mom. This place is great! There is so much for kids to do and it kept my attention as well. There are inside and outside fun activites. I can't wait to go back.

 The water fun was great. Just those exhibits and activities could have kept the kids happy for hours.

 There also is a play area that even teaches science along the way. There were tons of smiles and giggles that day.

Just stuff

It's been and will be birthdays galore for the next few weeks. We have Jon's grandmother, my grandma, my mom, my niece, myself and my daughter all within about a month.

It's been fun to get to purchase gifts again. We had to be really cheap and no little or nothing while Jon was in school and it's been fun to get to find something small for all the birthdays.

I have realized that giving gifts is one of my big love languages. I love to give and get thoughtful gifts. I love spending time thinking of special things to buy for each person based on their individual likes. I especially enjoy thinking back to things they have mentioned in passing and surprising them with it on their special day.

I have roses blooming! Emma and I picked some beautiful long stem roses for my mom's place setting at her birthday dinner. The whole dining room smelled so nice.

We also made a happy birthday banner out of some old wrapping paper. Emma was so excited to show Nana when she got here.

In other random news Emma and I have been getting lots of laughs from watching youtube videos in the evenings. Tonight, thank you Jen, we laughed at people who were drugged up from having their wisdom teeth out.

Greyson is making crawling attempts. He is also trying to walk. It's too close to call which will happen first.

I learned the hard way not to feed Grey kiwi without straining the seeds first.

We are looking forward to seeing Jon's grandmother, in from California, tomorrow for her 94th birthday party! She has a great spiritual legacy and continues to encourage us all in the Lord.

Greyson's room before and after

Before

Complete with pink walls and flowered border.

 After

Khaki walls and no icky border.

9 Months

Greyson turned nine months old this week! It's hard to believe, yet at the same time I can't imagine life without him.

He is very interested in walking. He wants to stand up and tries to even take your hands away while you hold him up. I don't think he knows that he can't do it alone yet. He also is making some progress on the idea of crawling.

He loves eating baby food and taking baths with Emma. He occasionally will take a drink from a sippy cup but really just wants to drink from a regular glass and does a pretty good job with it.

He thinks everything Emma does is hilarious, and lately has decided he's interested in the dog. Jarrah is interested in him too... well, more accurately, she's interested in the puffs he drops from his high chair.

He can clap when he wants to. He was doing it a lot a few days ago and when Jon got up I tried to get Grey to do it for him and- nothing! Fortunately I had captured it on video. Now when I ask Greyson to clap he looks at me and gives me raspberries.

He's sweet until he's not. He is either really happy or really mad. I think we will have a new challenge with his personality daily. That is one reason we are teaching him some baby signs. I foresee him having a temper and getting frustrated. So we are trying to give him as many communicative signs as possible to help us all out. 

He likes to snuggle with me, he sucks his left thumb when he's tired. It's adorable.

He's a joy and a blessing.

It happens

Tonight at dinner I asked Emma if she wanted her bath with Greyson or after him. At first she said she wanted a separate bath and then changed her mind.
So after dinner I got them both in the bath and all was going as usual. I had Grey all washed and he was in his bath seat playing and having a good time. I had Emma's hair all lathered up when I noticed Grey's face.
He was grunting. OH NO! I didn't have time to get him out of the bath so I did the next best thing. I called Jon for backup.
By the time Jon got into the bathroom Grey had already pooped in the tub and fortunately it was staying put.

Jon came in and was behind me. Greyson kept staring at Jon and as he got ready to get Emma out of the tub, Grey starting crying. I looked at Jon and saw that he was ready for bed which for the next week includes his plastic eye shields. He looked like a large fly in boxer shorts!  Jon's eye shields look like plastic lens the shape of aviator glasses, with small holes all over them. And the best part is, that they have to be taped on. So he had them taped to his forehead. No wonder Grey got scared. Jon lifted them up to show Greyson that he really was daddy and that calmed him down.

Jon got Emma out of the tub, sudsy head and all. I got Greyson washed and out of the tub. Jon got the tub cleaned and Emma back in the tub.

Crisis averted.

Two clean kids are in bed as is their daddy... the fly.

20/20

Jon had Lasik surgery yesterday. He was 20/100 in one eye and 20/400 in the other eye.

Four minutes later he was 20/20 in both eyes.

He can relate to the guy in the Bible. You know, cause there is only one guy in that book, I guess I can elaborate...

John 9:6-7
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Jesus could have just made the man able to see, but instead he put mud on the man's eyes and sent him to go wash them. Why the mud? I guess so the man had a reason to go wash, he was dirty and grimy. But the bigger reason, I believe, was that the man had to trust Jesus. He had to have faith that what Jesus said was true. He had to believe that washing his face, as he probably did daily, would suddenly give him sight- simply because Jesus said so. He had to have help getting to the pool which required him to share with at least one other person that he was practicing faith in Jesus.

Someone helped him go to the pool, he washed and came out, four minutes later, he could see. 20/20

He did trust.
He did believe.
He did have faith
He did have sight.

Faith in Jesus never disappoints.

Updates

Jon and I repainted the hardware on the kitchen cabinets. We aren't into brass but whoever changed out the fixtures in the house sure was! Everything is brass.

Here is the before.

Here is the after. Much better!

I wish I had taken a before picture of the mailbox. It had been painted over including the silver decoration on the front. It was rusty and peeling and was covered in bird poop. I sanded it and scraped it and got the paint off of the silver decoration and spray painted it.

You will just have to take my word for it that this is much better!

Old made new

I am currently working on refurbishing our mailbox and lamp posts. The mailbox had been painted over and was peeling and rusty. I didn't think to get a before picture, but I'll spare you the bird poop and rust and will just post an "after" picture once it's done.

I have finished painting the rooms (although the kitchen is just "phase one" and I will come back to it in a few weeks or months to do the next phase). I am really enjoying finding inexpensive ways to change things to make them look better.
I had priced the frames for the collage for Grey's room and it was going to be pushing $150. Whoa! So I took some friend's advice and visited Goodwill and found frames to refurbish for a total of $12. That's right folks, twelve dollars. I was very excited. I am going to pick up paint for these projects today or tomorrow and will share pictures as I get them finished.

I also took all of the brass kitchen cabinet hardware off and painted it a brushed silver. It was a super easy project. I just lightly sanded them all and used a primer and paint in one type of spray paint. Also, per a useful blog I read the suggestion to make a little stand for the handles so all the paint applies evenly. We took a cardboard box and Jon measured it out and put finishing nails up thru the box and I propped the handles up on the nails in the holes on the hardware. Make sense? Well, it was easy and they dried quickly and are back on the cabinets looking better than ever! All for under four dollars.

I have to make a mention though that as I typed the title of this post I realized it begs for the analogy that Christ is the ultimate in making the old, new. I have been terrible about making any time for reading my Bible since I have been done with work. I know this needs to change immediately. I picked up a devotional book at a garage sale that I really like but I know that doesn't replace the living Word. So I am going to try some different times during my day to get a good, uninterrupted time to read God's Word. I know He wants me to draw close and I want to do that. I also hope to find a women's bible study. If anyone knows of any in the area, please post a comment for me. All of that said, Jesus makes me new. He takes my old sinfulness and my lack of discipline, patience and turns me into something, someone that is beautiful. What a relief. I don't live stuck in the spiritual junk pile. I'm thankful He's into restoring.

I've been set free

I have hated the green walls in our house since day one. I deemed it "oppressive green". Well, I have been set free from the green! After approximately five trips to Sherwin Willamns and four different colors of blue, my mom helped me find the perfect one. We have accessories to buy yet, but that will come when the budget catches up with us. Here are some before and after pictures. Before

After